34 PERRY, MegalitJiic Monuments and Ancient Mines. 



area. For the Phoenicians collected a series of customs 

 from every part of the Eastern Mediterranean, irrespective 

 of whether they were Egyptian, Babylonian, or Mycenean 

 in origin ; and when they distributed them among the 

 more distant uncultured lands, they became sure indica- 

 tions of Phoenician influence Once, however, the investi- 

 gator enters the area of these old civilisations, where the 

 various elements of the culture-complex originated, these 

 no longer can be used as tokens of Phoenician influence, 

 for all the circumstances of the case are then altered. 

 Northern Italy was probably influenced by these older 

 civilizations without the intermediation of the Phoenicians. 



There is one other point in Mr. Perry's communica- 

 tion which calls for comment — the important role played 

 by pearl-shell in leading the distributors of the megalithic 

 culture to the East. In her interesting memoir on the 

 transmission of the use of the Purpura shell-fish from the 

 Eastern Mediterranean to Mexico, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall 5 

 emphasised the intimate relationship that existed between 

 the use of purple for dyeing, conch-shell trumpets and a 

 special appreciation of pearls. Professor R. C. Bosanquet 

 has called attention 6 to the fact that the use of purple, 

 the discovery of which had been credited to the Phoe- 

 nicians, was probably due to the Minoans. A collection 

 of crushed shells of Murex truncnlus discovered by him 

 in Crete are referred to a date at least as early as 

 1600 B.C. 



Moreover, the conch-shell was used as a trumpet in 

 Crete, and is said to have been " a regular accompani- 

 ment of Minoan religious worship." 7 



5 A Curious Survival in Mexico of the Purpura Shell-fish for Dyeing," 

 Putnam Anniversary Volume, 1909. 



6 " An Early Purple-Fishery," Report Brit. Assoc, 1903, p. S17. 



7 H. H. Hall, "/Egean Archceology, 1914, p. 155. 



